Michigan Education Department to fund state investigation into Oxford shooting

OXFORD, Mich. – The Michigan State Board of Education is calling on the state legislature to order and fund an independent investigation into the Oxford High School shooting and all future similar cases.

The state Board of Education passed a resolution on Tuesday, June 11, calling on Michigan lawmakers to require and pay for third-party investigations “in all cases where a student or students have died as a result of a safety-related event,” the resolution states. Specifically, the board recommends an independent investigation into several aspects of the Nov. 30, 2021, Oxford shooting.

“The State Board of Education calls on the Michigan State Legislature to order and fund a comprehensive, independent investigation into the Oxford murders. This investigation shall include, but be limited to, relevant events before, during, and after the tragedy, including emergency operations plans (EOP) within the school, district, community, and emergency response system,” the resolution states.

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The panel’s vote came weeks after its members heard from the parents of the four students killed by the Oxford shooter. The parents have formed a group called The Families For Change, through which they are working with local and state authorities to bring about “lasting change and real accountability” in the wake of the shooting, the group said earlier this year.

In a May statement from the State Board of Education, parents called for a “comprehensive investigation” into the shooting and a “mandatory threat assessment as part of schools’ emergency plans.”

The request from parents and now the school board comes after the completion of an independent investigation approved by the Oxford School District. However, the community was not satisfied with the length of the investigation or the results.

The state education agency itself said the independent investigation, conducted by Guidepost Solutions, “left unanswered questions” for the Oxford community.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel offered at least three times to independently investigate the Oxford shooting. The Oxford Community Schools district rejected those offers.

After the parents of the Oxford shooter were convicted earlier this year, The Families For Change called for the immediate firing of the local school board members who were “running the district” at the time of the shooting. The group said it also wanted an investigation into the school district itself.

“The Oxford community deserves board members they can trust to keep their children safe and move the community forward,” the group said.

Parents’ anger at the district is not unusual: Many members of the Oxford community expressed frustration at the lack of information they received from the district about what happened – even after a third-party investigation report was released last year. At a board meeting in November 2023, parents argued that the district had still not apologized or addressed certain concerns, such as why some staff members were not fired for their role in the shooting.

Guidepost’s 572-page investigative report said that while the school was properly implementing its safety protocols at the time of the shooting, more could have been done beforehand to minimize or prevent the damage. The report also claimed that the district did not have adequate policies in place to conduct a proper threat assessment, which could have potentially identified the shooter as a threat before the actual shooting.

The third-party report also blamed school staff and officials who had interactions with the shooter prior to the shooting. However, investigators said only a fraction of the school employees they wanted to speak to were actually willing to be interviewed and cooperated with the investigation. Other employees reportedly hired lawyers and refused to provide information.

When the report was released in October last year, the district said the details were still being reviewed and that more information would follow.

The victims’ parents stressed that anyone who had the opportunity to do more to prevent the shooting, especially school staff, should be held accountable for their children’s deaths. The Oakland County District Attorney’s Office had previously said it would not prosecute school staff or officials in connection with the shooting due to governmental immunity.

However, the school district and some of those employees are at the center of a lawsuit filed in federal court by the victims’ families.

Read: State Board of Education Resolution

Read the full resolution from the Michigan State Board of Education, passed on June 11, below.